This Month's Installment
"But I am just used to her," the old man replied in that harmless selfishness, which had strongly developed through the infirmity of his body;---184---it also appeared in such times as perfectly natural that everything had to turn around him."The Hutemach has stayed in Bärwalde?" Hans askt."She and Borowski. Thanks be to God! What would become of Bärwalde otherwise!?""But it is a lot from her that she has done it.""She explained from the beginning that she wanted to stay. She has often been in Russia, understands the language, and hopes to manage with the enemy if they should come.""But it is a lot," Hans repeated.Even from the poultry, which he otherwise preferred and which the privy councillor had again carefully prepared for him, the Bärwalder took hardly one bite. The brother's patience gave out on him."But you must pull yourself together a little, Manny!"The old man replied not a word. But a vague resentment lay on his face, and his thick, white brows knit themselves together tightly and firmly."It is a difficult time!" Hans sought to agree with the privy councillor and at the same time to placate him, "but we all suffer under it."Again no answer, and yet one saw how it was working behind the furrowed brow. Finally, the old man lifted his head from his chest; searching for the word with difficulty, he said: "A difficult time for us all, quite right, my son. And you, who, although a city dweller and a scholar, cling to the country home like all the Warsows, must understand why food and drink has no taste for me anymore. They have driven me from my soil! I grew up on it; my parents grew up on it, and my grandparents. I have cultivated and ploughed it from my---185---earliest youth on. I have put all my work and energy into it, seen it turn green and grow and bear fruit, every spring, every summer, every fall.
Grammatical Minutia/Commentary
Previously, I translated Scholle as clod, but that didn't really seem to fit the context here ("They have driven me from my clod!"). Soil is a better choice here (and probably in most instances so far, too).
